Only the first of the promised reviews
Apr. 14th, 2008 07:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lenora_roseI've been meaning to extoll the praises of Shadow Unit again after... oh, about every actual "episode" airs. NBo time like the present.
This may be one of the coolest shared world set-ups in existance. Shared world anthologies are all very well, but they don't involve this level of intertangling and overlapping and depth.
Shadow Unit is a website for a TV show that doesn't exist. A short explanation is: Within the FBI, there is the BAU (Behavioural Analysis unit) the people who profile serial criminals and their victims. Once in a while, they get a case which is too strange for them. They send this case Up the Hall.
The shadow unit up the hall is officially called, when called anything, the Anomalous Crimes Task Force. They call themselves, for short, the WTF.
(I should say, the four staff writers - Bull, Bear, Shetterly, and Monette - to date are also all people of whom I have been a big fan for some number of years. So... a tv show written my all these people whose work I lurve? Bonus.)
It began, as a site for a real tv show not yet on the air would, with some publicly accessible minor teaser scenes, about one a week (These can still be found under Case Files. Similarly, character sketches of the main staff appeared one at a time, (Both literal sketches and the prose kind). A forum opened up to discuss those tidbits.
Eventually, the plan became public knowledge; the website would eventually feature eight episodes exclusive to the site, prose works of novella length or more (Mostly vaguely equivalent to one hourlong episode) which would supposedly parallel (But not match) the TV show episodes.
Plus, hidden easter eggs all over the place; teasers not on the public list, character sketches not yet present if you took the site at its word as to what was available. Music playlists. My favourite, a late entry, was scans of five pages of the screenplay for a TV show episode... with the actor's notes scribbled all over it.
In short, if you started early and/or poked around enough, you had an idea of the personality of some of the characters before the first real episode aired that no real tv show has ever pulled off.
Plus, three and a half of the characters have livejournals. (One has a journal to read and comment on the other cahracters' journals. I don't think he posts.) Which, I've joked, means I can prove I have imaginary friends; three people on my friends list can be certified, by their creators, not to exist.
And yet aren't sockpuppets or trolls or the like neither. It shows aspects seeing them at work never will; Chaz's collection of recipes and food advice is the most obvious example, but a lot of the ribbing back and forth online also works.
So all of that was cool. The characters were interesting, the hints as to the nature of the Anomaly committing the crimes were fascinating.
THEN THE REAL EPISODES STARTED TO GO LIVE.
And it hit a whole 'nother level.
The first episode, Emma Bull's Breathe, is as good a pilot to any TV show as you'd get. It introduces everything from the ground up in a pretty slick fashion, and does it at as rapid a pace as it can and still fit in the detail. If you're too late to hit all the teasers and extras while they were fresh, I'd suggest jumping straight into this. It's mostly from the point of view of Daphne Worth, the newest member of the group, a former paramedic. It's good at introducing everyone well enough you won't lose track of them later, the plot itself is gripping, it's fast paced and just a bit clever. And the motivation of the villain will get a few people where it counts. Emma Bull is deft at coming up with characters because of, rather than at the expense of, the plot, and moving them through the action fast. It does have a strong whiff of "Start of a bigger series" about it, as do the opening episodes of many existing tv shows, but that's not a knock. It was more than good enough to get me to the next episode.
By the end of the episode, I loved Daphne, liked Chaz and Hafs, and Was mortally pissed off at Daniel Brady. The only character who didn't get to do much was Nicolette Lau, but hey, first episode.
Next up was Elizabeth Bear's "Knock on Coffins", which is about modern college, Viet Nam, Schizophrenia, and a number of other dark nasty things. Bear's prose is denser than Bull's, trying to pack even more character and action into as many words, so it feels more complex, and even though this villain is driving people insane instead of murdering them, it feels darker and more intense. I liked it even better; I had to reread the interview with the apparent schizophrenic over again on the spot, I found it so astonishing how it all wound together. Also, the things it did with Stephen Reyes and with Hafs, one wonderful bit with Lau, our first sign of what she is and is like. Also, Solomon Todd, the 50-some year old whose life is shielded by a long series of improbable stories of what he did and what he learned where - at least some of which might be true. But note, dark and dense, and intense.
The third, Sarah Monette's Dexterity, felt shorter than either of the first two; I can't say if it is physically a briefer story or just that I got so quickly swept into it that I didn't notice the time. The opening scene had a few people say that while it was fantastic, they might never read that particular bit ever again. It has the greatest quantity of off-crime geeking, and the first time we get a moment of the victim's point of view. Popular opinion on the message boards seemed to be that this was the episode to really hook most readers in to the whole series. I'd say i don't disagree, except that I was hooked by the first two first. And by this time everyone (except, again, Lau) was thoroughly fleshed out, gaining dimensions of good and bad and depressed and strong and weak.
They also, about this time, had an Easter Egg hunt, where a bunch more eggs popped up. I';m not great at poking about doing view page source or looking for links, so I just came along once all was found and followed the links to the revealed items. Oddly, it seemed to me that the Easte Eggs disproportionately favoured Lau, giving us the first strong clues in a long time why her teammates have nicknamed her Wonder Woman. (Although the cartoon wasn't so much character developing as cause for snickering.)
Fourth up was Will Shetterly's A Handful of Dust, the first one where I really, at the close of the story, had to catch my breath. I'm still not sure I totally like Daniel Brady, but this story is the one that lets you really understand him. What he does to stop the crime and end the killing is... nothing short of amazing, in a horrifying and haunting way.
This week was Ballistic, the longest episode yet, and a collaboration between four of the creators; Bull, Bear, Monette and Amanda Downum, up to this point mostly noteable as the web site artist.
And - Wow. I am full of wow to the point where I am incapable of enough to get a coherent word out. Among other things, this one featured Lau - and another character who's been little used, but I thought because they couldn't pull off an actual episode featuring them. This one breaks your heart several times and several ways.
So start with the first episode and go back and poke at the teasers. Or poke at the teasers until you can't stand no more than go and read the episodes where all the hints come together. Or wander around doing view source on various pages, or show links, or some other hunting trick. But go. Read.
And please, if you're not as broke as I am, DONATE. I've been wanting to donate all along, and I keep being unable; either my credit card, my bank account, or both, have been in deep sheep. But I owe them a whole whack of cash now. I've had at least a hardcover novel's worth of entertainment.
This may be one of the coolest shared world set-ups in existance. Shared world anthologies are all very well, but they don't involve this level of intertangling and overlapping and depth.
Shadow Unit is a website for a TV show that doesn't exist. A short explanation is: Within the FBI, there is the BAU (Behavioural Analysis unit) the people who profile serial criminals and their victims. Once in a while, they get a case which is too strange for them. They send this case Up the Hall.
The shadow unit up the hall is officially called, when called anything, the Anomalous Crimes Task Force. They call themselves, for short, the WTF.
(I should say, the four staff writers - Bull, Bear, Shetterly, and Monette - to date are also all people of whom I have been a big fan for some number of years. So... a tv show written my all these people whose work I lurve? Bonus.)
It began, as a site for a real tv show not yet on the air would, with some publicly accessible minor teaser scenes, about one a week (These can still be found under Case Files. Similarly, character sketches of the main staff appeared one at a time, (Both literal sketches and the prose kind). A forum opened up to discuss those tidbits.
Eventually, the plan became public knowledge; the website would eventually feature eight episodes exclusive to the site, prose works of novella length or more (Mostly vaguely equivalent to one hourlong episode) which would supposedly parallel (But not match) the TV show episodes.
Plus, hidden easter eggs all over the place; teasers not on the public list, character sketches not yet present if you took the site at its word as to what was available. Music playlists. My favourite, a late entry, was scans of five pages of the screenplay for a TV show episode... with the actor's notes scribbled all over it.
In short, if you started early and/or poked around enough, you had an idea of the personality of some of the characters before the first real episode aired that no real tv show has ever pulled off.
Plus, three and a half of the characters have livejournals. (One has a journal to read and comment on the other cahracters' journals. I don't think he posts.) Which, I've joked, means I can prove I have imaginary friends; three people on my friends list can be certified, by their creators, not to exist.
And yet aren't sockpuppets or trolls or the like neither. It shows aspects seeing them at work never will; Chaz's collection of recipes and food advice is the most obvious example, but a lot of the ribbing back and forth online also works.
So all of that was cool. The characters were interesting, the hints as to the nature of the Anomaly committing the crimes were fascinating.
THEN THE REAL EPISODES STARTED TO GO LIVE.
And it hit a whole 'nother level.
The first episode, Emma Bull's Breathe, is as good a pilot to any TV show as you'd get. It introduces everything from the ground up in a pretty slick fashion, and does it at as rapid a pace as it can and still fit in the detail. If you're too late to hit all the teasers and extras while they were fresh, I'd suggest jumping straight into this. It's mostly from the point of view of Daphne Worth, the newest member of the group, a former paramedic. It's good at introducing everyone well enough you won't lose track of them later, the plot itself is gripping, it's fast paced and just a bit clever. And the motivation of the villain will get a few people where it counts. Emma Bull is deft at coming up with characters because of, rather than at the expense of, the plot, and moving them through the action fast. It does have a strong whiff of "Start of a bigger series" about it, as do the opening episodes of many existing tv shows, but that's not a knock. It was more than good enough to get me to the next episode.
By the end of the episode, I loved Daphne, liked Chaz and Hafs, and Was mortally pissed off at Daniel Brady. The only character who didn't get to do much was Nicolette Lau, but hey, first episode.
Next up was Elizabeth Bear's "Knock on Coffins", which is about modern college, Viet Nam, Schizophrenia, and a number of other dark nasty things. Bear's prose is denser than Bull's, trying to pack even more character and action into as many words, so it feels more complex, and even though this villain is driving people insane instead of murdering them, it feels darker and more intense. I liked it even better; I had to reread the interview with the apparent schizophrenic over again on the spot, I found it so astonishing how it all wound together. Also, the things it did with Stephen Reyes and with Hafs, one wonderful bit with Lau, our first sign of what she is and is like. Also, Solomon Todd, the 50-some year old whose life is shielded by a long series of improbable stories of what he did and what he learned where - at least some of which might be true. But note, dark and dense, and intense.
The third, Sarah Monette's Dexterity, felt shorter than either of the first two; I can't say if it is physically a briefer story or just that I got so quickly swept into it that I didn't notice the time. The opening scene had a few people say that while it was fantastic, they might never read that particular bit ever again. It has the greatest quantity of off-crime geeking, and the first time we get a moment of the victim's point of view. Popular opinion on the message boards seemed to be that this was the episode to really hook most readers in to the whole series. I'd say i don't disagree, except that I was hooked by the first two first. And by this time everyone (except, again, Lau) was thoroughly fleshed out, gaining dimensions of good and bad and depressed and strong and weak.
They also, about this time, had an Easter Egg hunt, where a bunch more eggs popped up. I';m not great at poking about doing view page source or looking for links, so I just came along once all was found and followed the links to the revealed items. Oddly, it seemed to me that the Easte Eggs disproportionately favoured Lau, giving us the first strong clues in a long time why her teammates have nicknamed her Wonder Woman. (Although the cartoon wasn't so much character developing as cause for snickering.)
Fourth up was Will Shetterly's A Handful of Dust, the first one where I really, at the close of the story, had to catch my breath. I'm still not sure I totally like Daniel Brady, but this story is the one that lets you really understand him. What he does to stop the crime and end the killing is... nothing short of amazing, in a horrifying and haunting way.
This week was Ballistic, the longest episode yet, and a collaboration between four of the creators; Bull, Bear, Monette and Amanda Downum, up to this point mostly noteable as the web site artist.
And - Wow. I am full of wow to the point where I am incapable of enough to get a coherent word out. Among other things, this one featured Lau - and another character who's been little used, but I thought because they couldn't pull off an actual episode featuring them. This one breaks your heart several times and several ways.
So start with the first episode and go back and poke at the teasers. Or poke at the teasers until you can't stand no more than go and read the episodes where all the hints come together. Or wander around doing view source on various pages, or show links, or some other hunting trick. But go. Read.
And please, if you're not as broke as I am, DONATE. I've been wanting to donate all along, and I keep being unable; either my credit card, my bank account, or both, have been in deep sheep. But I owe them a whole whack of cash now. I've had at least a hardcover novel's worth of entertainment.
